


Remedy

by BeccaAnne814



Series: Tony Stark x Reader Oneshots [4]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Drinking, F/M, Fluff, cursing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-19
Updated: 2018-01-19
Packaged: 2019-03-02 22:32:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13327749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeccaAnne814/pseuds/BeccaAnne814
Summary: You've been by Tony's side for most of his life, so when the world comes crashing down around him, you drop everything to help him remember who he's meant to be.  Based off of Adele'sRemedy.





	Remedy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [buckyseyesandthighs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/buckyseyesandthighs/gifts).



YN glanced down at the handwritten directions and made the right hand turn as instructed.  If she hadn't been watching the mileage on her odometer, she would have never noticed the narrow road just off the mostly deserted county lane she'd been on for the past thirty miles.  She drove down the surprisingly well-maintained drive until she came upon a small, guarded outpost.  She gave her name to the guard at the gate, and within a few moments, she'd been directed toward the main facility. 

She was skeptical at first.  All she could see around her were thick copses of trees, but she knew better than to underestimate her best friend.  Rounding another bend, the trees suddenly broke and before her lay a facility so large, her mouth fell open in shock.

Slowing down, she saw two different landing pads – one with two jets, and the other with a lone helicopter.  The main building looked to be connected to an annex by an elevated catwalk.  As she neared the main facility, she saw another building off to the left, and what she assumed was a lake before her – the late evening sun bouncing off the water as it set beyond the horizon.

She pulled up to the front entrance and parked right in front of the door – she'd worry about moving the car later.  Taking a moment to gather her thoughts, she took a few deep breaths and then exited the car.  She wasn't sure what her reception would be, and from the urgent phone call she'd gotten a few days ago, she wasn't hopeful that she would be welcomed with open arms.

Surprisingly, the door was unlocked, so she let herself in.  The lobby was vacant, but she did find a bank of elevators off to the left.  She assumed that this building was the training facility and hangar, and that the elevated catwalk led to the living quarters in the next building over.  Pressing the button for the top floor, she hoped her instincts were correct.

The elevator let her off on what appeared to be a large balcony.  She walked to the railing, but all that was in front of her was a dimly lit wall.  She turned around and saw a brightly lit hallway.  Heading that way, she saw the hallway that seemed to lead to the catwalk she'd noticed from her drive in.  There was a set of double doors in front of her that she assumed led to the hangar. 

Deciding that she'd save the tour for later, she made the left toward the catwalk.  When she'd gotten to the center, she looked over to her left and from her vantage point above the trees, she saw the full expanse of the lake.  Maybe she'd convince him to take a walk with her out there tomorrow since she knew full well he'd been locking himself indoors and could probably use the fresh air.

The catwalk led to another hallway that branched to the left and the right.  Taking a chance, she headed right.  Her luck held out as she came to a large open space that held a kitchen, a lounge area, and a conference room behind a set of glass walls.

"You're here," a voice said from behind her.  "Thank God.  I wasn't sure how much more I could take."

She turned and gave the man behind her a wide smile.  "Rhodey.  It's so good to see you."  He was walking on crutches, so she carefully gave him a hug.  "Sorry I couldn't get here sooner, but I was finishing up a project at work and. . ."

"It's okay, YN," Rhodey said as he let out a sigh of relief.  "I'm just glad you were able to come.  I can't seem to talk him out of this one."

"So you called in the big guns," she said with a smirk.

Rhodey shook his head and laughed.  "You were always better at talking him down off the ledge than I was."

"Pepper's usually pretty good at that, too," she said with a questioning look.  "Where is she at right now?"

With a grimace, Rhodey said, "They've been having some issues, so they're taking a break."

"Wait a second," she said, holding up a hand.  "Who all is even here right now?  Is it just you and Tony?"

"Vision is here," he said.  "Tony kicked out all of the trainees and support staff once we got back.  It's just the three of us and the guards at the gate."

"What the hell happened, Rhodey?  I saw some of it on the news, but it just doesn't make any sense to me."

"I'll tell you what happened," Tony said as he sauntered through the door.  "I screwed up. . .again.  Surprised?"

"Tony," YN said, her voice full of censure. 

He gave her a flippant look that made her want to walk across the room and wipe it off his face.  Rhodey had been right to call her – he was on his way into a downward spiral and she wasn't sure he would be able to come out this one without some help.

"I don't know why Rhodey called you," he said with a glare at the other man.  "I'm assuming he called you.  Doesn't matter.  I don't need you.  We're doing just fine."

"Really?" YN asked, holding her arms out to encompass the whole room.  "Who's we, Tony?  The only people I see here right now are you and Rhodey."

"I am also in residence as well, Ms. YLN," a _man_ said as he drifted through the wall to her left.

"What the hell is that?" she asked as she held her hand to her heart in shock.

"This is Vision," Rhodey said.

"We've talked about this, Vis," Tony said with an exasperated look.  "Gotta start using doors.  It freaks people out when you walk through the walls."

"Sorry, sir," Vision said with an apologetic look on his face.

"Jarvis?" YN asked, her brow furrowed in confusion.  "Why does he sound like Jarvis, Tony?"

Tony pursed his lips and rubbed his hands together.  "Wow.  You've missed a lot in the last few years."

"Well, it's a good thing I'm staying a while," she said with a big smile.  "You can get me all caught up."

"There's nothing I can do to get rid of you, is there?" he asked, his eyebrows raised in annoyance.

"No," both she and Rhodey said at once.

Rhodey turned to Vis.  "Would you go down and get YN's things from her car and put them in one of the empty rooms?"

"I would be happy to, Colonel Rhodes."  Vis turned and started to phase through the wall, but then remembered and with a forced smile, headed toward the catwalk.

YN turned back to Tony, but he'd already left the room.  "Where can I find him?"

"He's got a lab on the bottom floor," Rhodey told her.  "There are some elevators just around the corner there."

"Thanks for calling me," she told him as she ran a hand down his arm.  "I've been so busy lately, and you guys are always off saving the world, but it's no excuse.  I should have made it a point to come around more often."

"You're here now," he told her.  "And while he may not want to admit it, he's happy to see you."

"We'll see about that after I initiate the Tough Love Protocol."

"You think that's necessary?" Rhodey asked.

"I could smell the Scotch on his breath from over here," she told him as she started walking toward the elevator.  "He'll probably hate me for a few days, but he'll get over it."

"Good luck," he called after her.

She rode the elevator down to the ground floor and followed the sounds of Black Sabbath to his workshop.  He had his back to her, but she could see him tinkering with one of his suits, a glass of Scotch on the table beside him.  Shaking her head, she opened the door and walked in.

"Hey," he said when he saw her grab the glass of Scotch.  "What are you doing?"

Ignoring him, she walked to the sink and poured the amber liquid down the drain.  Reaching for the bottle sitting on the counter, she pulled the cork and tipped it into the sink.

"That's a three thousand dollar bottle of Scotch," he told her, his voice taking on an icy edge as the music came to a sudden stop.

Glancing over her shoulder she said, "So, in addition to alienating most of your friends, and running off the woman you love, you also went bankrupt?"

"No," he began. . .

She shrugged her shoulders and continued pouring.  "Then you can handle the loss."  Taking a deep breath, she went on.  "You have to stop trying to drink away your problems, Tony."

The sound of metal slamming into the work table had her jumping in surprise.  Dropping the bottle into the sink, she swore softly when broken glass went everywhere.  Spinning on her heel, she gave him a dirty look.

"If you've just come here to lecture me, you can march your ass right back out that door."

She'd seen Tony angry many times in the course of their friendship, and she'd learned to tell the difference between when he was angry with her and when he was just angry with himself.  Right now it was the latter.

Walking over to him, she pulled him into her arms and held onto him.  He stood stiffly within her embrace for a few moments before his arms wrapped around her waist and his head came to rest on her shoulder.

"Better?" she asked.

"I've missed you, YN."

Tears began to well up in her eyes, threatening to spill down her cheeks, so she looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath.  "I've missed you too, you idiot."

She could feel him begin to chuckle.  "Why do I put up with you?"

Pulling away, she grasped his chin in her hand and looked him straight in the eye.  "Because other than Rhodey, I'm the only friend who's still willing to put up with you."

He pulled away and sat on the stool behind him.  "I screwed up big this time."

"So I've heard," she said as she sat on the table beside him.  "What happened, Tony?"

"I thought I was doing the right thing, I really did."

"I don't get it, Tony," she said, shaking her head in confusion.  "Help me understand what happened here.  Wasn't it just a few years ago that you stood up in front the Senate Armed Services Committee and told them in no uncertain terms that they would never be in control of you, and then you go and sign away your rights to the UN?"

"I had to," Tony said, his voice full of desperation.  "I'm out of control, YN.  You haven't been around in a while, but I keep making mistakes – I keep screwing up and my screw ups keep getting bigger and bigger.  People are starting to die because of me."

"Sokovia?" she asked, finally starting to understand.

"Sokovia, New York, D.C., Lagos, Vienna – you name it, I'm personally responsible for each and every life that was lost while we were off playing heroes."

"That's not fair," she interjected.  "It wasn't just you calling the shots, Tony.  You're a part of a team, and last time I checked a team either wins or loses together."

"I'll give you that," he agreed.  "But Sokovia is all on me and my arrogance.  I thought I could create something, that I could protect the entire world with my genius.  And what did I do?  I created a homicidal artificial intelligence that almost ended the world."

"Ultron," she stated, not bothering to phrase it as a question.  "I remember talking to you about that program one night when we were drinking to celebrate. . ." she shook her head as the memory escaped her.  "I can't even remember what we were celebrating that night."

"Me either," he said with a smile, "but you're right.  It was Ultron."

"Tell me something, Tony.  Why does Vision have Jarvis' voice?"

He hemmed and hawed for a bit before giving her a straight answer.  "Ultron was trying to create a human-like body, and we kinda stole it from him and uploaded Jarvis' interface to create Vision."

"So, basically you created Ultron," she said, earning her a confused look from him.  "The real Ultron that would watch over the world and help you to keep it safe."

"No, no," he started, but stopped, his brow furrowing in confusion.  He took a breath and started to speak, but then stopped again.

"You don't even see it, do you?" she asked, shaking her head in disbelief.  "You're so caught up in your failures that you can't see when you've actually succeeded in doing something spectacular."

He gave her a sardonic look.  "The key word there is failure."

"People fail, Tony," she told him with a sigh.  "It's human nature.  The key is to not let your failures define who you are."

"When does it end?  When do people stop dying because I keep screwing up?"

"How many people would die every day if you didn't do what you do?" she asked, turning the question back around on him.

"Good point," he said, sarcasm dripping off his words.  "But who gave me the right to decide who lives and who dies?"

"So, you're willing to let a group of government suits tell you who you're supposed to save and who you're supposed to kill?  That's not you, Tony.  That's never been you, and I'll be damned if I ever let it become you."

He closed his eyes and rubbed his hands over his face.  "I don't know who I am anymore.  I've lost my team.  Half of them are stuck in a prison under the ocean, and the other half is God knows where.  Pepper's finally had enough. . ."

"What about this kid I've been hearing about?" she asked, interrupting him.  "The one in Queens."

"Oh, God, don't remind me.  I'll probably screw up his life, too."

"He looks up to you, doesn't he?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"God help him," Tony said, rolling his eyes.  "Says he wants to be just like me.  We both know that can't happen."

"Then help him, Tony," she said, her voice growing firm.  "I did a bit of research on him after Rhodey told me you'd dragged him to Germany with you.  He reminds me a lot of you when you were that age."

"Be careful there, sweetheart," Tony warned with a wicked grin.  "You're telling your age."

"Pfft."  She brushed him off with a wave of her hand.  "My point is, you have a chance to be a father figure to this kid.  Let him learn from your mistakes and teach him how to be better."

"Like my old man did?"

"No," she said pointing her finger in his face.  "Be better than your old man.  Be the kind of father figure you always wanted Howard to be."

"I can't do this by myself," he admitted with a helpless look in his eye.

"Then ask for help," she told him.  "It should have been you that called me, not Rhodey.  You can't keep pushing people away, Tony."

"Next you're going to tell me to call Pepper."

"Let's wait until you're completely sober, but yeah, you're calling Pepper."

He looked toward the sink and then back at her.  "Tough Love Protocol?  You've already thrown out my liquor, so next it'll be food, a shower, and then sleep?"

A huge smile spread across her face as she hopped down from the table and grabbing his hand, pulled him from the stool and head toward the elevator.  "You know me all too well."

"I'd like to say I didn't, but I honestly don't know where I'd be right now if you hadn't saved my ass a few times over the years."

"Don't forget that you saved me first," she reminded him as the elevator opened on the top floor.  "I wouldn't be where I am today if you hadn't taken a chance on a down-on-her-luck kid.  You helped me find a purpose, and now it's my turn to remind you of yours.  But first, dinner."

Rhodey joined them for dinner, and the three of them fell back into their familiar rhythm.  YN had missed spending time with her two best friends, and she vowed that she wouldn't let their jobs be an excuse to lose touch again.

Once the dishes had been cleared, she ushered Tony to his room and demanded that he take a shower.  He put on a show of complaint, but in the end, he did as she'd requested.

"Well, you're not in danger of dying from malnutrition, and you no longer smell like a distillery, so it's time to do something about the bags under your eyes."

"Yes, Mom," he said with a roll of his eyes. 

She shook her head as she started turning down his bed.  "I want a solid eight hours of sleep, you hear?"

"Seriously?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, laying the sarcasm on thick.  "I didn't realize you had such a busy schedule, what with Pepper running the company, and Iron Man operating on an on-call basis for the foreseeable future."

"You know I hate you when you get like this," he said as he raised one eyebrow in defiance.

"You love me and you know it," she told him with a smirk.  "Now go to bed."

She started to walk toward the door, and he called out to stop her.  "Wait."

She turned around, but he didn't say anything else.  Letting out a sigh, she knew what he needed.  "You want me to stay?"

"I don't want to be alone," he admitted, staring at the floor before looking up at her hopefully.

She toed off her shoes and walked toward the bed.  "Come on."

Slipping under the covers, she lay on her back and waited for him to join her.  It had been a long time since she'd held him while he slept – the last time being after his parents had died, but she knew he would sleep better with her next to him.

"Don't think this means you'll finally get to third base with me," he teased as he wrapped his arms around her waist and laid his head on her chest.  "I'm a one woman man, now."

Rolling her eyes and letting out a laugh, she said, "I'll try to keep my hands to myself."

She'd stroked her hand up and down his back until he'd finally drifted off to sleep before carefully rolling him to his side of the bed.  Turning to face him, she watched as the stress slowly faded away the deeper he fell into sleep.  Content now that he was no longer on a path of self-destruction, she closed her eyes and allowed sleep to overtake her.

 

The sound of Tony's voice drew her out of her dreams, and she rolled over to see who he was talking to.  A smile came over her face when she spotted him at the window, one hand leaning against the glass and the other cradling a phone to his ear.

"I'm a mess, Pepper," she heard him say, "but I promise I can be better if you'll just give me another chance.  I love you, and I don't want to live without you."

He was silent for a moment as he listened to Pepper's reply.  Turning around to look at her, she could see the surprise on his face when he noticed she was awake.  "My remedy showed up yesterday – turns out I just needed a little tough love."

**Author's Note:**

> _Thank you for reading this story!  I hope you enjoyed it!  I wrote this story for a very dear friend of mine who's celebrating a birthday today.  She's always seen Tony as a father figure, so that's why the Reader in this story is just a friend.  I love Adele's song, Remedy, and I've been wanting to write a story to go along with it for years.  Did you like the Tough Love Protocol?  Sometimes I think that all Tony needs is a swift kick in the rear!  What did you think of her assessment of Vision?  I've always thought that where Tony failed with Ultron, he succeeded with Vision.  He's always looking for the next best thing and he all too often overlooks what's staring him right in the face. . .aka Pepper Potts!  I look forward to your comments!_


End file.
